Which I would say extends beyond words-on-the-page to whatever cultural elements come attached to it, with honorifics being the most obvious though not only example — even if the non-Chinese-speaking reader knows what jiujiu means and therefore has 0 trouble parsing it, I imagine it'd still remain one level more-foreign than seeing "uncle" in their everyday language?
On the one hand, yes for the (lack of) cultural context, but on the other, there's an added level when it's fic for a show or film you watched in the original, with subtitles. Or at least for me - in some ways jiujiu etc. manages to be more immediate than "uncle" because it directly evokes the characters' voices: I can hear the character say it in my head, and a translated term, no matter how spot on, can't do that. (That's why I personally like it when forms of address especially are not translated in the text - though I definitely appreciate everyone who adds footnotes/endnotes!)
(Also, come to think of it, I grew up with English books translated into German that always used some English terms, especially forms of address - from very easily-translated ones (Mr, Mrs) to ones that don't have a direct German equivalent (sir) - so that sort of thing feels normal to me, I guess!)
except that Chinese translation feels far more fluid while I dictionary-flip a lot more when doing Japanese in a way not dissimilar to how one starts checking 1+1=2 on the calculator half an hour into the exam
Haha, I arrive at that point in every language eventually.
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Date: 2022-02-08 10:15 am (UTC)Which I would say extends beyond words-on-the-page to whatever cultural elements come attached to it, with honorifics being the most obvious though not only example — even if the non-Chinese-speaking reader knows what jiujiu means and therefore has 0 trouble parsing it, I imagine it'd still remain one level more-foreign than seeing "uncle" in their everyday language?
On the one hand, yes for the (lack of) cultural context, but on the other, there's an added level when it's fic for a show or film you watched in the original, with subtitles. Or at least for me - in some ways jiujiu etc. manages to be more immediate than "uncle" because it directly evokes the characters' voices: I can hear the character say it in my head, and a translated term, no matter how spot on, can't do that. (That's why I personally like it when forms of address especially are not translated in the text - though I definitely appreciate everyone who adds footnotes/endnotes!)
(Also, come to think of it, I grew up with English books translated into German that always used some English terms, especially forms of address - from very easily-translated ones (Mr, Mrs) to ones that don't have a direct German equivalent (sir) - so that sort of thing feels normal to me, I guess!)
except that Chinese translation feels far more fluid while I dictionary-flip a lot more when doing Japanese in a way not dissimilar to how one starts checking 1+1=2 on the calculator half an hour into the exam
Haha, I arrive at that point in every language eventually.